Bewitched!

“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.”Galatians 3:1 (NIV)

Have you been bewitched? I’m not talking about the sitcom where the lady wiggles her nose and bewitches people. I’m talking about the evil spell that Satan casts on so many believers today that robs them of the very life Christ came to offer them. Like those believers among the churches in Galatia, believers today can be bewitched from the simplicity that is in Christ. Having begun their new life in Christ by faith, they now try so hard to live it out in their own strength and effort. Many have become worn out, exhausted, and burdened by trying to carry out all that they sincerely believe God requires of them. The joy and peace they once felt when their sins were forgiven has been replaced by fear and toil to accomplish an ideal that can never be real. Every day, they try to get closer to God by following rules they believe God has established as a standard for them to meet. They feel that they can never measure up to all that God demands. Having come alive in Christ, they live now as though they were dead! If this describes your “Christian” experience, then you have been bewitched! Listen to what Paul says to these Galatian believers in Galatians 3:3, “How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?” How then are we to live? In Colossians 2:6, the Bible tells us “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him.” Don’t let Satan bewitch you. You received Christ by faith and, through His grace, you were made right with God. Live in the same grace that you received when you believed. It’s so easy to be deceived into thinking we must earn or achieve our freedom in Christ because faith alone seems too easy. If you’ve ever felt that way, you’re not alone. To the believers in Corinth, Paul wrote, “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3NKJV) Your deception protection is the Holy Spirit whom you received the moment you believed. Through the power of His indwelling, we can fully live with joy and peace as we abide in Him.